filmtext

Filmtext is a term used in film studies to describe the film as a completed textual object, conceived as an integrated system of moving images, sound, editing, performance, and mise-en-scène that conveys meaning to an audience. Unlike a screenplay or treatment, the filmtext encompasses the finalized audiovisual work and the ways in which its codes invite interpretation.

The filmtext includes cinematography, editing rhythm, sound design, music, dialogue, acting, and production design, all working together to produce narrative, mood, and effect. Viewers decode the text using cinematic codes—such as the significance of a shot, the meaning of a motif, or the relation between image and sound—and these codes can shift with genre, culture, and individual reception.

Scholars use the concept to analyze how a film text relates to other texts and to examine intertextuality, adaptation, and reception. The filmtext can be compared with the source material (for example, a novel) to identify what is preserved or altered, and it can be examined against promotional or behind-the-scenes materials to understand production choices. Intertextual readings explore references within the film to other works, genres, or media, while formalist approaches focus on how editing, sound, and mise-en-scène produce meaning.

The term emphasizes cinema as a crafted object with its own textual codes, capable of being read, debated, and interpreted independently of the creator’s stated intentions.